I was about to put up a different post–that’ll be for tomorrow–when Jonathan Steinman sent along these photos. As I post this, tug Challenger is eastbound on the East River, approaching Hell Gate. The question on Jonathan’s mind, as well as mine and maybe yours . . . what is that assemblage balanced on the barge?

This photo of Doris Joan Moran that has been circulating on FB this morning. Sorry . . . I wish I knew who gets the credit for this unusual shot. Anyhow, it reminded me of a post I did five years ago here.

Here’s a Doris photo I took last week . . . uncoated.

So one reaction to the cold is to bundle up, grit your teeth, plod on, complain a little more . . .

But you have to admit, winter in the northern latitudes gives us new senses of hulls on snow bases, or

levitating above it.

Here’s roughly the same angle . . . as I took it in September 2012.

Thanks to Bob Stopper for the photo of tug Syracuse and to Erich Amberger for the winter photo of Wendy B. The others I took, except for the top photo, and I’d still like to know who took that.

Uh . . . I just mis-read the FB info on the frosted over tugboat above. It was spelled j-o-a-n, and I transferred that as d-o-r-i-s. I’m sloppy sometimes. Maybe I need an editor.

Take a European canal/river barge . . . . This one was built in 1963 in Moerbeke, Belgium, by Marinus Faasse. He named it Leja, the portmanteau word for his parents’ names, Lena and Jacob.

Here’s part of the text of an email I received today from Maya Faasse: “Leja was the second motor barge my parents have built. It is named after our grandparents, Lena and Jacob. Our father, Marinus … knows every detail. For about 40 years he made his living on Leja, as did our mother for 34 years after they married. My sisters Leona, Jaccoline, and I were born and raised on the Leja, and have very good memories and had a very nice childhood on the water. Every vacation from boarding school and most weekends we spent on board. The summer vacations where the best times, 6 weeks of playing and swimming. Our parents had to sell the barge because our mother needed a pair of new knees and recovery wasn’t possible on board, so they had stopped their business with pain in their heart, and sold it to an owner in France, who renamed it Sojo.”

We were planning a trip to France this spring to go find the barge . . . and go look for it. So we contacted the broker for information where the Sojo could be at that time and wanted to see what is still original and what is new. But . . .

then the broker told us that the owner had renamed it Sojourn and moved it from France to the USA. Later on we also found a picture on the Erie Canal taken in May 2013.

Our father just turned 78 years and his biggest wish is to still visit the Sojourn.”

The photos below were taken in October 2014 by Bob Stopper. They show her being moved by Benjamin Elliot toward her current location in the Lyons.

Stories like Maja’s move me, and I certainly hope Marinus Faasse gets to visit with his half-century-plus-years creation soon in Lyons, where snow likely covers it.

Click here and here for photos of some other Dutch barges in the northeastern parts of the US. There may be more, and if so, I’d love to learn about them. For some motor barges that traveled from west-to-east on the Atlantic, click here for a post I did four years ago.

Many thanks to Maja Faasse for writing. Also, to Bob Stopper who sent the three photos of Sojourn back last fall. Also, a tip of the hat to Lewis Carroll for coining the portmanteau portmanteau.

Photos from Italy, Florida, and Trinidad, resp. The first photo comes thanks to Rod Clingman . . .tug Lourdes C towing Costa (not Concordia) Fasonosa. The second photo, thaks to Ashley Hutto, shows Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Weatherbird II–said to be first research vessel to reach Deepwater Horizon post-blowout. The photo and the rest from S/V Maraki and my sister in Port-of-Spain.

Thanks to Bob Stopper, these photos show NYS Marine Highway’s Benjamin Elliot moving French canal barge Sojourn into the Lyons drydock area. Sojourn has quite the history that I hope to be telling more about soon.

Not New York . . . that’s for sure. But do the colors look at all familiar?

That name should tell you why I posted these photos, taken in Skagway, Alaska, and sent along by Bob Heselberg. Click here for more info on Lily Oldendorff, sister of Alice, who most recently appeared here on this blog.

And finally, the day before the race, I got this photo from MY former Pioneer crewmate Darell Terrance Gilbert. Now crewing on a people mover on the sixth boro, he sees a lot of things not many folks see. for example, back on a cold evening in January, he sent along this pic that we’ve never quite figured out.

Bob and Darell, thanks much for sending along these pics.

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